I was actually pretty blown away by Man of Steel. Perhaps I went in with lowered expectations after the abomination that was Superman Returns, but I felt that Henry Cavill was great as Superman and Clark Kent. Yes, he was a bit stiff and serious, but I’ve never seen an incarnation of this character that wasn’t. Considering the catastophic, world-ending events that were taking place in Man of Steel, there wasn’t room for much levity. Michael Shannon was serviceable as Zod, and his battles against both Jor-El and Superman were pretty epic.

I have to say that the whole cast was pretty fantastic – Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Henry Cavill all gave superb performances, and Amy Adams did fine with what little she was given. I also thought that Antje Traue was pleasantly surprising as Zod’s enforcer Foara. Oh yeah, and Cavill got seriously jacked to play Supes. The guy must’ve eaten a whole ranch full of chickens and taken up permanent residence beneath the bench press. This is the first time I’ve seen an on-screen Superman that I truly believe could totally kick someone’s ass, and actually looks like his comic-book counterpart.

I felt that the film’s exploration of Superman’s home planet of Krypton was quite interesting, as to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t been shown so in-depth on the big screen before. Watching Russell Crowe’s Jor-El ride a giant dragon creature was a badass image that will be burned in my mind for some time, and Jor-El’s fight against Zod was one of the film’s better show-downs. The time spent on Krypton really sells the relationship between Jor-El and Kal-El, as well as the idea that Kal-El is not one of us, highlighting all the reasons that the government and general population is fearful of him. It also gives a lot of weight to Zod’s hatred towards Kal-El and Earth. Speaking of Krypton, I was very happy to see that there was no Kryptonite used in Man of Steel – it’s so overused as a cheap tactic to make Superman vulnerable, and I’m glad they thought outside the box on that issue for this movie.

I agree with the criticisms that near the end the film gets a little action-heavy, and a lot of the action was a bit unintelligible, but the CGI work was great, and to be honest, I was fine with too much action after the snooze-fest that was Superman Returns. The sheer amount of destruction that takes place in Man of Steel is insane. The utter annihilation of Metropolis might have even surpassed the damage done to New York City in The Avengers.

Overall, I came away quite impressed with Zack Snyder’s vision of Superman, and I’m anxious to see the inevitable sequel. Perhaps even a Justice League movie? How badass would it be seeing Christian Bale and Henry Cavill team up?

Jason Bakker is the Editor-in-Chief and founder of Metal Arcade. He loves to write, draw, make music, mix audio, and is a big fan of gaming and gadgets. Health and fitness is his way of life. Follow Metal Arcade on Twitter and Facebook, and check out the YouTube Channel.